Since the day I met him? Who is he?
“P…pleaseee.” The word comes out as a shiver, the voice sounding unfamiliar to my own ears, drowning out with the buzzing in the freezer. My teeth keep chattering. The throbbing pain in my head intensifies and all I can do is try to beg them to get me out of here. “Please.”
“Will you look at that,” one of them snickers, the mocking tone feels colder than the chilly breeze of the freezer. “The Ice Queen is begging.”
Through the slits of my eyes, I watch as the shadows become bigger, their threatening footsteps muffled by the pounding of my heart.
They’re coming toward me.
They’re going to touch me, to hurt me… I can feel the brazen intent of their eyes on me. It’s clear they’re the ones who did this to me. They hurt me and now, I’m naked, bleeding from somewhere, my body a glutton of pain and misery and completely at their mercy… and I’m pretty sure they have none.
“Yeah, she’s going to be begging louder soon enough,” the first guy says with a chuckle.
“W-why?” I croak, painfully aware of my nakedness but I can’t move to cover myself. “Why are you doing this?”
“Aww Mia,” one of them says, dropping down to peer over me. “Because we can.”
All the light is behind them, like the gates of hell are right behind them, but somehow, I can make out the evil glint on the eyes…
“Shane?” I gasp. What?
“The one and only baby,” he says, just before I see a flash of teeth.
“Why?” I whisper, the ominous feeling of danger and dread now nothing but a sense of impending disaster. My flight-fight response kicks in as he looks down at me, but I already know.
There is no way I’m getting out of this.
“Welcome to the land of the living,” he says. “We’ve been waiting for you!”
“Y-you won’t-t get away w-with this,” I stutter, my teeth chattering as another cold gust of air blows over me. I’m filled with so much shame and fear I’m sure he can smell it on me because his smirk is so sinister, so chilling and indifferent, I shover.
“Mia, the things I’m going to do to you…” he tsks. “Get the camera ready, that bastard Fitz has a package coming his way.”
No!
“What-t are you going to do to Julian?” I whisper, panic rising in me. Shane throws his head back and lets out a sinister, hyena laugh that makes my insides twist and knot up some more. He completely ignores my question. “Leave h-him alone.”
They laugh.
“This is going to be so much fun, bro, don’t you think?”
The other figure, who I’m pretty sure is Sean, steps forward slowly. He’s bigger, more menacing than his brother. I want to scoot back, get away from them both but I can’t move without an assault of excruciating agony slicing me eight ways into next week.
“After what this bitch did to me,” Sean says slowly. “She has more than earned everything.”
I have to fight.
I don’t have a choice. If I want to get out of this, I need to fight. It’s two—wait, there’s a girl out there—I’ll fight all of them if I have to.
The moment I feel Shane moving to touch me, I muster up all the strength I have and the pounding fear in me and jerk upright.
Agony rips me a new one, but I don’t wait to feel it, scrambling to get away from them. The door is right there. It’s open. If I can get to it before them, I can lock the two of them in and…
I fail before I can even get to my feet
Falling hard on the cold slab, I let out a howl of pain, but above my scream, I can hear laughter.
I’m on the verge of passing out at the amount of agony passing through my body like being electrocuted. This pain, it’s too much. Especially from my head. I’m sure they beat me up with something over the head.
I feel them coming closer, stalking toward me in a frightening way. I start thrashing around, kicking and lashing out.
I slam my own chin with my knee, but I don’t stop. I keep fighting, not caring what I connect with.
“Ah fuck this! Where is that needle.”
Needle?
But before I can think more of it, I’m yanked up so hard that the loud howl of pain that escapes my lips as agony rips through my body pierces my own eardrums, then I feel a pinprick on my arm.
Almost immediately, darkness claims me once more, swallowing my screams, my fight and my willpower… throwing me into an abyss of uncertain danger.
And all I can see, is a pair of green eyes so intense, I cling to them.
Julian…
Chapter Three
Julian
“I’m not going to ask you again.”
My vision is tainted with a red haze of fury, the taste of urgency and something else close to fear that makes the blood in my veins boil as the unmistakable stench of war hangs over us, and it looks like right now, I’ll have to fight my brother and my best friends for answers.
I look at my best friend, my fists are clenched tightly, my fucking heart racing, ready to knock him the fuck out and he knows it too.
“J…” he starts, not daring to look away. “Just try to breathe, bro.”
“Don’t fucking try to manage me. Tell me what I need to know!” I roar.
“Whoa, J, man, just take a moment to listen,” Liam says stepping in. “We met with someone to get the envelope.”
“You met with Courtney!”
“Uh, well, to be honest, I just tagged along with Cole after you know, he came back from college for your trial and all…”
He’s fucking mumbling and I don’t have time for that mess.
“What the fuck is he trying to say?” I demand, now staring at Cole. He sighs, running a hand down his face oil frustration.
“Your case wasn’t going well.” I already hate where this is going, but Cole doesn’t give a damn. “We needed help.”
“I never asked you—”
“You were going to be convicted and thrown behind bars and that key tossed in the fucking Grand Canyon for all your rich white boy shit going on.”
“I didn’t fucking need any help!” Especially from her! I didn’t want her to get dragged in this and now…
“Yeah well, you got it anyway!” he snaps. “You and I both know you were fucking screwed the moment that trial started. Everyone here knows that too, including the girl you accused of setting you up when she told you she didn’t! Mia saved you!”
“And now she’s been taken!” I seethe. “Don’t you fucking get that?” Everything is connected. My fucking fake-ass was dropped and then in the same breath, Mia is taken? By Matthews of all people? This can’t be a fucking sick coincidence. “Now, I’m going to fucking ask you, what does all this mean?” I demand, my throat feeling tight like I’m being strangled as my mind races, conjuring up images of my Little Minx, the girl I failed.
Mia smiling.
Mia dancing.
Mia in my fucking arms.
Mia telling me she loves me.
And then, Mia, begging me to listen to her pleas of innocence with tears streaming down her face like a torrent of rushing water and then me leaving her, refusing to listen...